Adam Hartung: Game Over For Microsoft

Adam Hartung is man who takes no prisoners. You may recall how he criticized CEO Steve Ballmer last year, labeling him as “the worst CEO of a large publicly traded company”. Whoa!

In his 2012 article he decried that Microsoft’s monopoly over the personal computing industry had vanished, and consumer desire to upgrade products created by the Redmond company had evaporated.

Now, the Forbes analyst is back for more.

Hartung, who is also a managing partner at consulting firm Spark Partners, said in a blog post that things are looking pretty grim for Microsoft, and the recently released products from the Redmond computing titan completely ruined the company.

So much so that Microsoft is very likely to close several divisions in the near future and cut thousands of jobs. In other words, game over for the company. Pretty strong words:

“Failure is already inevitable. At this stage, not even a new CEO can save Microsoft. Steve Ballmer played ‘Bet the Company’ on the long-delayed release of Win8, losing the chance to refocus Microsoft on other growing divisions with greater chance of success.”

According to him Microsoft may be forced to fire thousands of people in the coming years. Hartung estimates that up to 60 percent of Microsoft’s 94,000 employees will have to be let go, and several divisions may be closed.

Even more, Microsoft could be forced to sell off its entertainment division to companies like Sony:

“No longer is Microsoft seen as a leader, and instead it is rapidly losing market relevancy as people look to Apple, Google, Amazon, Samsung, Facebook and others for leadership. The declining sales, and lack of customer interest will lead to a tailspin at Microsoft not unlike what happened to RIM.”

The analyst believes that Microsoft’s business is set to decline even more in the coming years, and Steve Ballmer’s retirement is the only way forward. He should leave right about now:

While Adam gave some pretty inaccurate figures in his blog post regarding Windows 8, RT, and XP, he nevertheless recommend people to sell their Microsoft stock, terming this a collapsing business. He concludes:

“Game over. Ballmer loses. And if you keep your money invested in Microsoft it will disappear along with the company.”

Oh boy, the way he talks, I don’t reckon much elaboration is required here. I’ll leave the commenting to you guys. Do share what’s on your mind. What do you make of all this talk?

I read his list of “analysis” and it sounds like a child got hold of his PC and typed out his article for him.

Idiot!

peter sodja

Very shallow. This is complex story.

steve

Microsoft will still continue to lead the PC company… wrong analysis…

Rodney Longoria

I’d never dismiss Microsoft in such a way. There’s too much roadkill out there for folks who have.

Give it six months to a year (after Surface Pro, Windows 8 Phone and the new Xbox has been out awhile). Then let’s see the writing on the wall. Much too soon call it “game over”!

As A Sully said, he is a total moron.

DCJason

Sounds like this ‘analyst’ is more of a ‘ pessimist’. Also, sounds more personal rather than based on grounded facts. I agree with Rodney L., give it 6 months after Surface Pro, etc are in the market, then we can watch Hartung grovel….

zappaff

I guess he has a personal issue with Microsoft. Totally wrong. I myself use linux from the day one but at home. In business world Office Suite is unrivalled so I have to use my computer in a dual boot mode. Also I appreciate Microsoft because they provided a basis for morons like Hartung to use computer. I believe this moron cannot use a MS DOS, IBM OS or any kind of command line OS but thanx to Gates he can swear to Gates and his company. Anyways, winphone8 and win8 are great pieces of software and I totally changed to MS all over again from my cell phone to my tablet powerbook. With the integration of their various platforms into one with 8 series Microsoft is still the king of the hill and will be the king of the hill. But I would really appreciate that Ballmer calms his hostility against non profit linux foundations and orgnisations because it deteriorates Microsoft’s public image although Bill Gates is a living angel.

Robert Kegel

People like me who hate apple say the same thing about apple. You can’t rely on people who hate a company to write about a company. Just like you can’t rely on people who don’t like a product to sell a product.

I know I’m a hater of apple which is why I may comment my hatred but I would never review an apple product because it wouldn’t be fair. This guy shouldn’t write about Microsoft because it shows he hates them, he hates Ballmer hates every product. He should just write about apple or Android whoever he’s a fanboy of and leave Microsoft alone.

Rex

Totally agree. The issue is. Fanbois can not be effective analystd in the field of their fanboism. Even if he avoids analyzing MS, his predjudices still cloud his analysis of their competitors. Anyone using these peoples analysis for investment advice are making grave errors. The reason I think these people end up as analyst is that they like to use their opinions to affect the outcomes of business. Therefore, I would never listen to any analyst when it comes to investment. They are dishing out what they want the market to do, not what it will do.

WillyThePooh

I do agree that Ballmer should be let go. Also, my friend working in MS expressed his worry of being layoff. But I doubt it will be 60%. Selling entertainment division to Sony is a joke as Sony is in a worse shape than MS. If MS collapsed, what computers could the PC users use? Mac or Linux? They are not feasible solution for most home users due to various reasons.

Fulvio

Adam Hartung is the most imbecile person that ever wrote a post on Forbes. We should try to start a massive request for him to get fired from Forbes so he can now learn that biased blogs are dangerous and he should to hid behind a screen posting all the poison he can.

Fulvio

If you are a MSFT small investor like me and you are REALLY TIRED of people like Adam Hartung posting BS about MSFT all around, then join me and let’s make the guy lose his job, as he really sucks doing it.